I'm Crine is AAVE slang for 'I'm crying,' where 'crine' is a shortened respelling of 'crying,' and it usually signals crying from laughter rather than sadness.

Where did Im Crine come from?

The earliest known use of 'crine' appeared on X on October 6th, 2013, in a post from Bronx-based user @THEKIDMERO.

What does Im Crine mean?

It means 'I'm crying,' with 'crine' as a shortened respelling of 'crying,' though in practice it almost always signals crying from laughter, not sadness.

How do you use Im Crine?

Drop it as a caption over a reaction image or funny clip, usually followed by a string of 😭 emojis and sometimes the word 'Son' as a hype opener.

Is Im Crine still popular?

Yes, the phrase went viral across TikTok and Instagram in 2025, including a widely shared Apple Memoji image macro in Papyrus font.

Im Crine

2013catchphrasetrending

Published August 12, 2026

I'm Crine is an AAVE slang catchphrase for 'I'm crying,' used to signal crying from laughter rather than sadness. First posted on X in 2013 by Bronx users, it went viral on TikTok and Instagram in 2025 as a reaction caption paired with the 😭 emoji.

aave memes catchphrase memes slang memes reaction memes delayed virality memes

Overview

I'm Crine is an AAVE slang catchphrase meaning 'I'm crying,' with 'crine' acting as a phonetic respelling of 'crying' in the same family as 'goofy ahh'1. Despite the 'crying' root, the phrase almost always signals crying from laughter, and it usually rides alongside the 'Face with Tears of Joy' emoji and the shouted opener 'Son 😭😭😭😭😭'1.

TikTok

Through 2025, I'm Crine took over reaction culture on TikTok and Instagram, showing up as text overlays on shock-laugh clips and, later, as its own image macro built around an Apple Memoji in a zen pose captioned in Papyrus font2.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

X / Twitter (viral spread on TikTok and Instagram)

Creator

@THEKIDMERO

Date

2013

The earliest known use of 'crine' as slang for 'crying' surfaced on X on October 6th, 2013, in a post by @THEKIDMERO, a user from the Bronx borough of New York City4. Within weeks of that first tweet, another Bronx-based X account, @desusnice, picked the word up in posts that mentioned @THEKIDMERO directly, seeding the spelling into early AAVE Twitter vocabulary3.

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How It Spread

In January 2014, 'crine' jumped from X to the Kanye West fan forum Kanye To The, where posters used it in album reaction threads. By June 2015, the same board spun off a variant called 'brine,' tied to Brad Pitt jokes3.

The word gained mainstream visibility across the mid to late 2010s, including a May 17th, 2016 quote-tweet from rapper Chance the Rapper about his album Coloring Book that used 'crine,' and a December 17th, 2018 tweet from X user @kelsieesquibel about following her ex's new girlfriend that ultimately earned over 229,000 likes3.

The catchphrase's biggest surge came in 2025. On September 18th, TikToker @fuckmexy captioned a DJ Vlad clip of comedian Aries Spears with 'I'm crine' followed by a string of 😭 emojis, racking up more than 163,700 likes in five months2. In late October, an anonymous edit began circulating that paired an Apple Memoji sitting cross-legged with a Papyrus-font 'I'm crine' caption, and the format took off across Instagram. By November 18th, Instagram user @job.mp2 was pairing 'I'm crine' with AI Baby Holding Laugh videos, pulling roughly 25,900 likes in eight days5.

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Instagram

How to Use This Meme

People typically drop 'I'm crine' over a reaction image or clip that hit them as unreasonably funny, often followed by three to six 😭 emojis and sometimes the word 'Son' as a hype opener1. The Apple Memoji zen edit set in Papyrus font is a common convention on the image macro side as of late 20252.